THE FOLKS BACK HOME WERE OK
Hanns F Skoutajan
When I saw pictures of Canada’s CF18s flying in formation from Cold Lake,
Alberta , eastward to Kuwait to join in the Middle East quagmire I was reminded
of the many who have left our shores to fight abroad. They all did so assured
that the folks back home were OK.
The only time that the sovereign soil of Canada was violated was 202 years ago.
Canada wasn’t all that sovereign at the time but a colony of Britain. On that
occasion, the Anglo-American war, 1812 - 1814, our neighbours to the south
invaded Upper and Lower Canada, as they were then named. For a time they
took York (Muddy York now Toronto). However, in each case what became the
Dominion of Canada remained intact. General Isaac Brock continues to look
down from his high pedestal at a united and intact nation.
Two years ago, the 200th anniversary of that war was celebrated in all the
various venues where fighting had occurred eg. Queenston Heights, Chrysler’s
Farm, Amherstberg and others. Actors in the military uniforms of that time faced
off in friendly combat with the America enemy. Not having been born in Canada
but having been received as an immigrant and refugee from the Nazi scourge in
1939 gives me a keen appreciation of this country, its history and hospitality.
Gwyn Dyer in his recent book: Canada in the Great Power Game, 1914 - 2014
gives an exciting account of our nation and its forces in the global conflicts of our
time. He begins with the role played by Canadian soldiers in the Boer War in
South Africa. Fourteen years later Canada once more answered the call of the
Mother Land to fight in one of the bloodiest conflicts misnamed The Great War.
What was so great about it is hard to discern except its human losses. In that
conflict , especially in the trenches of France and Belgium, Canadians made a
name for themselves and their country at the cost of thousands of lives. Our men
left our shores reasonably confident that the folks back home would be OK.
Twenty years later hostilities resumed and Britain unlike Canada was threatened
from the skies and from across the Channel. Canada came to the aid of Britain
and attacked the enemy on the sands of Africa, up the boot of Italy , across
France and into the German homeland.
That victory was achieved in the company of US tanks, planes and ships. The
USSR created an eastern front at tremendous loss of life, and eventually took
Berlin the capital. Canada was also involved in the battle against the Japanese
who had allied with Germany. That war ended with the detonation of the first
atomic bombs.
It was a tough war and victory was not always certain, especially not in the first 3
years when the Axis ruled from Egypt to North Cape, from the Pyrenees to the
outskirts of Moscow while Japan island hopped across the Pacific and south east
Asia.
Once again our military left to fight in the knowledge that the folks back home
were OK as they produced food, guns, tanks, planes and ships. Not all was quiet
on the home front. My wife who grew up in Prince Edward Island tells of the
blackouts that her father had to supervise. The siren for their small village was
located on the roof of their house and “was very scary.” She also reminded me of
the U boats that penetrated the Northumberland Straits and on one occasion a
torpedo flew over the prow of the ferry boat.
And there is more , in Korea in the 50s Canadian troops took part in the battle
between north and south, a struggle that ended in a stalemate even to our time.
But Canada also became involved in peacekeeping in a variety of venues.
In his history of that bloody century Dyer does not go beyond 2000 AD although
his title claims 2014 as the terminus. Since then Canadians have been involved
most notably in Afghanistan where they held the fort at Kandahar at the price of
life.
As I think about the history of war in which this country has been involved I am
impressed by the fact that the folks back home were OK. I am of course aware
that those folks back home suffered certain privations such as gas and tire
rationing, as well as using ration stamps to purchase sugar, cheese and meat
etc. My first bicycle purchased in 1944 had wooden pedals,and plastic handgrips.
There were few new cars manufactured and none had chrome embellishments.
It behooves us therefore to countenance the possibility that by declaring war as
we have recently done, we might well suffer an attack. In the last year and
particularly the last few days we have been made conscious of our own
vulnerability.
As those jets and soldiers left Canada for Kuwait to be involved in the battle
against ISIS, war is again at a distance. Our involvement shall be from the sky
and in training other troops and for six months only (?) Dare we wonder how long
our long standing inviolability can last? Are the attacks on members of our forces
in the Richelieu Valley of Quebec and in Ottawa at the War Memorial and under
the Peace Tower of a greater significance or are they but the acts of mentally
unstable individuals whose minds have been fired up by wars far away, who long
for some personal martyrdom?
When Jean Chretien, then prime minister, denied Canadian involvement in Iraq,
he made an important statement in favour of peacekeeping. It has been
questioned by our present prime minister who insists that Canada must be
“involved in the heavy lifting” as though peacekeeping was some light weight
stuff. Ask Romeo D’Allaire about that weight equation.
The world’s political situation is complex indeed. Undoubtedly wars cannot be
won from the skies only and certain roles require boots on the ground, yet I
believe in my heart that Canada should avoid being embroiled in endless war.
The time hopefully will come when forces will be required to stand between
enemies and “keep the peace” as we have done In Cyprus and other places on
behalf of the United Nations.
Dyer quotes Tony Burns who after a fifty year career of war fighting ,
peacekeeping and disarmament negotiations said, “the greatest threat to the
survival of democracy is no longer Russia or the Chinese or any other country
professing an anti-democratic ideology ( think ISIS) BUT WAR ITSELF.”
“The foes we might more readily see as ones genuinely worth fighting ... cannot
be fought militarily.” so McKay and Swift in Warrier Nation . “When ‘Flanders
Fields‘ asks us on Remembrance Day, to “take up the quarrel with the foe,” most
Canadians might be forgiven for wondering, “Which foe might that be?’.. The foe
we might more readily see as one genuinely worth fighting - world hunger,
injustice in the Middle East and the global South, planetary climate change,
capitalism itself, cannot be fought militarily. There is more to the idea of the
peaceable kingdom than mythmaking : it chimes with a good part of Canadian’s
past and present sense of reality”
MYQUEST Oct 26, 2014
For past stories : skoutajanh.blogspot.com
